January 07, 2013

A case of the Mondays

Last year, we made the decision to be open 6 days a week, and be closed on Mondays. We were a new organization. Money was tight. And we had to cut something, somewhere. So we decided to remained closed on Mondays to save some money, be sure we got ourselves established, and then move forward.

Starting today, we are going to be open Mondays. And it's a really big deal in our mission to maintain a high save rate for a couple of reasons.

#1) We're an open admission shelter. We take in animals every day. So if animals are coming in every day, then they need to be going out every day as well. We take in an average of about 20 dogs and cats every single day. Some days we move more out than that, some days we don't, but taking in that number, and moving almost none out, was a challenge to overcome.

#2) In Missouri, state law requires we hold stray animals for a 5-day stray hold for owners to reclaim. And it mandates that it's 5 BUSINESS days. With one day being closed each week, we essentially had to hold every stray animal (except those that came in on Mondays) for one additional day before they could become eligible for adoption -- which means we were self-imposing a 6th day of hold time. Our average length of stay for dogs is less than 15 days. 1 day is a LOT when you're rotating out dogs that quickly, especially given that nearly 80% of our owner returns happen within the first 3 days of the hold period. The extra day of hold time was accounting for about 450 animal days in the shelter each month. It was a lot. And now, that will be gone.

I'm always amazed when I hear of shelters that are closed a lot - often open only 5 days each week, or closed on even a single weekend day. It makes a huge difference in life-saving to be open. And so we will be. 362 days a year.

Comments

That's really excellent! Your last few words made me really curious though... which three days will you not be open? I remember that KCPP was open for July 4th last year and New Year's Day this year! :) I'm going to guess Thanksgiving, Labor Day, and Memorial Day will be the only three days that KCPP will be closed in 2013. Am I close?

Marie -- it's not a done-deal yet and we may make some changes, but right now I'd anticipate that we'll be closed Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. We will definitely be open for Memorial and Labor Day -- as those are good days for both adopters (and we generally have solid volunteer support since people are off work).

Most excellent and I wish more shelters of all types would be open more often. I'm trying to get No Kill Shelby County in AL off the ground, and one of my goals is to increase the open hours of the humane society. They're closed way too much. They've made a lot of progress since I first moved into the county, and I'm thankful for that, but there's so much more they could be doing to be even better.

You are doing an amazing job - and what strikes me as the most impressive is your collective attitude about doing what is best for the animals. Wish we could bottle that and get it to a lot of other facilities.
My own humane society seems to be okay with what they do because they don't kill for space, but there is so much more they could do, but for some reason don't.
On behalf of all the animals and the people who love them - THANK YOU!!!